“Oh, do I.” Mariah chuckled. “He was off-balance in training all morning.”
It was true. Whatever Signe had shown him in the city a few nights ago, Matheo had returned with stars in his eyes and a woozy, crooked smile, and now he couldn’t stop blushing every time the priestess walked into the room.
Good for him. Andrian was glad the younger man had a distraction while he and Mariah worked through…whatever this was.
And, okay, fine. It was nice seeing one of his oldest friends happy.
“What about you?” Mariah asked. Andrian met her gaze in the mirror. There was something unusually soft in her expression, head cocked ever so slightly as she toyed with the edges of her cape.
Concern.
He cracked his best attempt at a smirk. “What about me, princess?”
“Areyouready?”
His stomach bottomed out when he realized what she was asking.
Was he ready for tonight? To be back in public in Eyarfell, around its people and its council? Was he ready to face the Oracle again, the way her clouded eyes saw far too deep into his shadowed and blemished soul?
Callamus and Signe had both spoken to the council; at least, that’s what Mariah had told him. Assurances had been made that no such confrontations would happen again tonight. Perception of thereykr, and therefore him, wasn’t going to change overnight, but they’d been promised an evening of celebration and nothing more.
Then there was the bit Mariah had told him about Kol’s magic. Andrian’s shadows didn’t make him vulnerable to Kol’s influence. It was just…Kol.
He wasn’t sure he believed it. Who would? Whocould? And did it change anything, really?
Mariah was still trying to convince him otherwise. They’d talked until well past midnight last night. She shared her stories and read some from her family diary, while he shared all the things that plagued his heart. Every fear and doubt and question he’d ever had, finally emptied into the night air.
Even with all that, even when they fell asleep with those confessions around them, he still didn’t quite believe that he wasn’t the monster they thought him to be.
It was why that tanzanite ring was still in his pocket, tucked against his heart, and not sitting on her finger.
“Hey.”
Andrian hadn’t even realized he’d withdrawn into himself until a soft, warm hand touched the side of his face. His vision cleared, forest green swimming into view, so rich and brilliant and vibrant. Eucalyptus and cedarwood with just a hint of night jasmine wrapped around him like the sweetest embrace.
Mariah’s hand slid around the back of his neck. He nearly groaned as her hands sank into his hair. She stepped into him, body melding to his, no less perfect that it had been that first day he’d caught her in an abandoned gallery.
“I’m with you. And you’re with me.Always.”
He released a heavy breath, falling into her. “Always, princess.”
He should’ve been shocked when she tipped her chin up, pressing into him, and kissed him.
They’d come so close, so many times, over the past few days. But just like she had a few moments ago, she’d always turned away from him at the last moment.
So, when her lips met his, he wasn’t quite sure if it was real.
Then that gods-damned tongue flicked out of her perfect mouth, sliding into his, and his world collapsed.
The groan he’d been fighting back finally slipped free. He slid his hands into her hair, around her hips, drinking her in. They’d hardly spent a moment apart since arriving in Leuxrith, and yet he felt starved, parched, so desperate he could hardly stand it?—
Instinct swallowed him whole as he swept his hands under her thighs. Her smooth, toned legs wrapped around his hips, that sinfully beautiful dress hitching up. Her cape dragged the floor as he backed them into the wall, pinning her to it.
His cock waspainfulin his tailored pants. He ground against her, still hungry for any sort of contact; he needed it, craved it, ached for it. For her. Her soft mewl of pleasure set his blood alight, heart pounding in his chest, shadows snaking down his arms and coiling around her legs.
No. Wait.
That pounding wasn’t just his heart.
